“Above all, keep a close watch on this—that you are never so tied to your former acquaintances and friends that you are pulled down to their level. If you don’t, you’ll be ruined. . . . You must choose whether to be loved by these friends and remain the same person, or to become a better person at the cost of those friends . . . if you try to have it both ways you will neither make progress nor keep what you once had.”
—Epictetus, Discourses, 4.2.1; 4–5
This struggle is real.
The power of peer influence is huge at all stages of our life.
The best we can do is keep moving forward, running our own race and hope to meet them at the top… realizing we might be leaving them behind in doing so.
You can’t take them with you because it’s a personal journey.
It’s one that everyone has to choose for themselves.
You can’t let them pull you down because it robs your progress, your happiness, your health, and your chance to evolve and level up in life.
Above all, keep a close watch on that.